FBC Russellville pastor leads association in focused, concerted prayer effort

FBC Russellville pastor leads association in focused, concerted prayer effort

Russellville’s Patrick Martin came home from the 2015 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Columbus, Ohio, excited to implement a prayer event he’d experienced there.

“My wife and I attended an event that was about a spiritual great awakening, where we talked about the need for spiritual renewal in our country,” said Martin, pastor of First Baptist Church, Russellville. “There were 7,500 people praying together for two and a half hours. It was one of the most impactful things I’ve ever been a part of as a Christian. I left there and felt like God was leading us to do something like that.”

So when Martin returned home he shared the concept with his fellow Franklin Baptist Association leaders — and they were equally as excited about bringing the idea to life in their churches.

“We were going to do it regardless, but I saw the vision for getting all 35 churches in our association on board with doing this on the same day — one association praying for the same thing in all our worship services,” Martin said. “Since I was the only one who had attended the annual meeting, I put together a worship service template, changing it so it was an hour-long program instead of two and a half hours.”

Most of the association’s pastors were on board and they all began praying to decide when the right time for this event would be. They landed on early January, thinking that starting the New Year with this kind of unique service would help focus their churches in 2016.

Prayer-focused worship

On Jan. 10, First, Russellville, along with several other churches in Franklin Association, hosted a special prayer-focused worship event, each at their own churches. At press time reports were still being compiled, but Martin estimates that at least 20 of the association’s 35 churches participated.

Each of the participating churches structured things a bit differently, but at Martin’s church they dedicated a full worship service to prayer. 

“My folks loved it. They embraced it,” he said. “We did prayer circles where we had folks gather up all around the congregation. It was fun standing up on the stage and watching and listening when folks were praying out loud. You could hear this dull roar around the room.”

Longtime First, Russellville, member Calvin Parmer said the church has never done anything quite like this.

“This is the first time we have ever spent the entire morning service in prayer that involved active participation of all in attendance,” Parmer said. “Beforehand there was some apprehension among our members, but this soon disappeared as soon as the program began. The prayer topics were areas of importance in our daily walk of life.”

Martin divided the service into four prayer topics: “What would happen if God really moved?” (Acts 2); “It’s time to repent” (1 John 1:9); prayers for leadership (ranging from pastoral staff to President Barack Obama and everywhere in between); and “We want to be filled with God’s power” (Acts 1:8).

Martin said, “When I came to this church, we decided we wanted to build a Great Commission church in Russellville. The vision of our church is carried out by being a group of people that is excited and empowered by the Great Commission. 

“Our aim as a church was for this event to give us a springboard for 2016, which we are calling ‘A Year to Grow.’ We want to grow financially, spiritually, membership-wise, through baptism, and this was a way to galvanize our people around one idea.”

Larry Dover, Franklin Association’s director of missions, said it was important to bring prayer to the forefront in the association. 

“Our association is like most: we need to pray more,” Dover said. “I sensed an urgency in our churches that I have not seen in a long time. Maybe God is up to something.”

Importance of prayer

Though First, Russellville, dedicated the full service to prayer, other churches in the association used that Sunday to have a traditional service that emphasized the importance of prayer throughout the service. 

“All of the other pastors preached a sermon on prayer and spiritual awakening,” Dover said. “All of them had times of prayer led by various members of the congregation. Some of them had altar calls during or at the conclusion of the service.”

Martin said he hopes his church and others in the association can experience an event like this again, although he would want to be sure it’s not so frequent that it loses its impact.

“One of the best things about this was the fact that our association did it together,” he said.